Directing

DIRECTING

FILM TECHNIQUES

AND

AESTHETICS

Fourth Edition

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DIRECTING

FILM TECHNIQUES

AND

AESTHETICS

Fourth Edition

Michael Rabiger

AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD •

PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO

Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier

Publisher: Elinor Actipis

Publishing Services Manager: George Morrison

Senior Project Manager: Brandy Lilly

Developmental Editor: Cara Anderson

Assistant Editor: Robin Weston

Marketing Manager: Becky Pease

Cover Design: Wendy Simpson

Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier

30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA

Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK

Copyright © 2008, Michael Rabiger. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Elsevier prints its books on

acid-free paper whenever possible.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rabiger, Michael.

Directing : film techniques and aesthetics / by Michael Rabiger. — 4th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-240-80882-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—Production and direction.

2. Motion pictures—Aesthetics. I. Title.

PN1995.9 P7R26 2008

791.43 0233—dc22

2007017582

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-0-240-80882-6

For information on all Focal Press publications

visit our website at www.books.elsevier.com

07 08 09 10 11 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

For Lewis, Netta, Alma,

Lauren, Freya, and Olivia

with much love.

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CONTENTS

Introduction ix

PART 1: ARTISTIC IDENTITY AND DRAMA

1 The World of the Film Director 3

2 Identifying Your Themes 16

3 Dramaturgy Essentials 27

PART 2: SCREENCRAFT

4 A Director’s Screen Grammar 43

5 Seeing with a Moviemaker’s Eye 64

6 Shooting Projects 91

PART 3: THE STORY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT

7 Recognizing the Superior Screenplay 119

8 Analyzing a Screenplay 130

9 Director’s Development Strategies 137

10 Alternative Story Sources 146

11 Setting Creative Limitations 155

PART 4: AESTHETICS AND AUTHORSHIP

12 Point of View 165

13 Subtext, Genre, and Archetypes 175

14 Time, Structure, and Plot 181

15 Space, Stylized Environments, and Performances 192

16 Form and Style 201

PART 5: PREPRODUCTION

17 Acting Fundamentals 215

18 Directing Actors 223

19 Acting Improvisation Exercises 231

20 Acting Exercises with a Text 248

21 Casting 258

22 Exploring the Script 272

23 Actor and Director Prepare a Scene 284

24 Initial Meetings with the Cast 289

25 Rehearsals and Planning Coverage 297

26 Production Design 304

27 The Preproduction Meeting and Deciding Equipment 311

PART 6: PRODUCTION

28 Developing a Crew 333

29 Mise-en-Scéne 347

30 Producing a Shooting Script 369

31 Before the Camera Rolls 382

32 Roll Camera 385

33 Location Sound 400

34 Continuity 410

35 Directing the Actors 414

36 Directing the Crew 424

37 Monitoring Progress 428

PART 7: POSTPRODUCTION

38 Preparing to Edit 439

39 Getting Started on the First Assembly 450

40 Editing Principles 458

41 Using Analysis and Feedback 472

42 Working with Music 478

43 Editing from Fine Cut to Sound Mix 485

44 Titles, Acknowledgments, and Promotional Material 494

PART 8: CAREER TRACK

45 Planning a Career 501

46 Major Film Schools 510

47 Breaking into the Industry 517

Glossary 529

Bibliography and Useful Web Sites 543

Index 551

viii CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Here is a practical, comprehensive film directing manual. It will prepare you like

no other for the methods, thought processes, feelings, and judgments that a direc￾tor must use throughout the fascinating experience of creating a film. By talking

to you directly and respectfully as a colleague, and by offering hands-on projects

as learning tools, it recognizes that you learn best from doing.

Making films that speak with your own voice and identity will engage your

head, your hands, and your heart, and enhance every aspect of your waking life.

Film makes extreme demands on its makers so this book makes an ideal com￾panion for the self-taught or for anyone going to film school. There, coursework of

necessity focuses on surmounting technological hurdles, and courses will always

leave significant gaps in the conceptual and authorial side of filmmaking. These the

student must bridge alone. Commonly he or she can get no clear sight of the path￾way from beginning to end of the artistic process, and find nobody to give help at

moments when it’s most needed. This book makes accessible the context, explana￾tions, and mentorship that everyone needs.

FILM’S ARTISTIC PROCESS ENHANCED

Digital technology has massively accelerated the film student’s learning experi￾ence. Low cost shooting permits a fully professional shooting experience. The

novice director can now experiment, improvise, solve problems collaboratively

with cast and crew, revise earlier solutions, and treat crises as disguised opportu￾nities. A guerilla approach like this—normal enough in documentary but alien to

the cost-driven traditions of the features industry—empowers the low-budget

independent to produce cutting-edge creativity. Even seasoned professionals are

turning to digital filmmaking: George Lucas made his Star Wars: Episode II

Attack of the Clones using high definition (HD) digital camcorders. Shooting the

equivalent of 2 million feet of film in a third less time, he saved $2.5 million in

stock and became an enthusiastic convert. You see the fruits of this liberation in

the digitally-enabled work of Mike Figgis, Steven Soderbergh, Wim Wenders,

Spike Lee, Michael Winterbottom, Gary Winock, Rick Linklater, as well as the

leading lights in the Danish Dogme Group and many, many others.

WHAT’S NEW IN THIS EDITION

This book’s organization suggests an ideally linear process for film production, but

it’s laid out that way so you can find information in a hurry. In practice, everything

is connected to everything else, and nothing done early ever seems finished or fore￾closed. Filmmaking being more circular than linear, earlier editions of this book

evolved into something like an encyclopedia. By the third edition, trying to provide

information wherever it was needed was making the book repetitive and too long.

This new edition is lighter by about a sixth. Information has been consolidated,

there is more internal signposting, and the advice is more concisely prescriptive.

Compression notwithstanding, the book is once more expanded in scope and

reflects some of the huge increase of information available on all aspects of film￾making. Highlights are:

• Part 1 Artistic Identity (Chapters 1–3) includes more about the director’s job

and characteristics, and, since a film director is really a dramatist, more about

dramatic analysis and dramatic construction.

• Part 2 Screencraft (Chapters 4–6) includes a revised and expanded screen

grammar. This is not the conventional kind but an original and practical

guide to using the hidden origins of film language. By closely observing the

actuality around him or her, the director can role-play a figure called the

Concerned Observer. Then, by proactively biassing the tale, the director can

surpass mere technical proficiency to become a storyteller with a distinctive

voice and style.

• Part 3 The Story and Its Development (Chapters 7–11) concentrates on hon￾ing a given screenplay rather than laboring to produce original writing. Good

manuals exist for this already.

• Part 4 Aesthetics and Authorship (Chapters 12–16) provides an extensive

questionnaire to spotlight a developing film’s aesthetic needs and potential.

Each question links to particular chapters, making solutions easier to locate.

• Part 5 Preproduction (Chapters 17–27) offers a revised and expanded group￾ing of information on: the fundamentals of acting; communicating with and

directing actors; casting; and the all-important rehearsal and development

process. Thirty exercises offer acting experience and experience at directing

actors, either with a text or through improvisation. New tables list the acting

principles that each exercise explores.

• Part 6 Production reflects the growing use of digital technology as well as an

enhanced discussion of crew roles, and of directing actors during the produc￾tion cycle.

• Part 7 Postproduction reflects developments in the digital domain, and

includes the use of both original and previously recorded music. The postpro￾duction phase determines much of the fluency and impact of the final film,

and reflects the author’s many years as an editor.

• Part 8 Career Track is more clearly structured and starts with a vocational

self-assessment questionnaire to help the user identify where his or her

strengths lie.

x INTRODUCTION

NOW AVAILABLE ON THE BOOK’S WEB SITE

To enhance the book’s portability, some material has been shifted to the book’s

web site (www.focalpress.com/9780240808826), notably the checklists and proj￾ect assessment forms. Having them downloadable lets you edit or augment them

at will. The web site also contains a casting form, a short budget form, and infor￾mation specific to 16 mm and 35 mm film. For the convenience of teachers (and

self-teachers), the web site also contains suggestions for using this book to support

different classes and syllabus levels.

PREPARATION VERSUS EXECUTION

You may wonder why a film production book devotes sixteen chapters to the thought

and activities prior to the preproduction phase. Most beginners assume that a direc￾tor mainly needs to know screen techniques and filmmaking technology, but this is

like assuming that calligraphy will equip a would-be novelist. In fact, audiences sel￾dom reject original screen works on grounds of shaky presentation. Werner Herzog’s

earliest films, for instance, were frankly amateurish, but the vision and intention

behind them is strong and audiences responded accordingly. When beginners’ screen

fiction falls short it usually does so because it lacks:

• Credibility in the story’s world and its characters. The director needs better

understanding of actors and acting, dramatic structure, and the processes of

human perception that underlie film language.

• Unity, individuality, and force of conviction in the story concept. The story

needs greater originality, greater momentum in the narrative, and something

worthwhile and deeply felt to say.

• Design in the film’s dramatic, visual, and aural form that would make it cine￾matic rather than theatrical.

In simple, direct language this book addresses these abiding concerns, for which

no amount of new technology can substitute. Most of those aiming to become

screen authors, knowing no better, will concentrate on the material, technical side

of filmmaking. Though this prepares them usefully to practice a craft, most are

making a journey toward a directing career that is purely imaginary. This need

not be so, and this book takes the bull by the horns from its first pages. For every

phase of fiction filmmaking it tells you clearly and unequivocally what you must

know, what you must do, to put moving stories on the screen.

LOCATING THE HELP YOU NEED

You can find information by going to:

• The Table of Contents for the Part covering the filmmaking stage you’re at.

There you’ll find a breakdown of the chapter contents that handle it.

• The Index.

• The Glossary.

• The Bibliography.

INTRODUCTION xi

• The web site guide. Since web sites die and resurrect with bewildering speed,

be prepared to flush out further sources of information using a search engine.

Cross-check all important information with other sources before you bet

your shirt on it.

THANKS

Anyone writing a book like this does so on behalf of all the communities to which

they belong. Many ideas in this book grew from teaching relationships with stu￾dents at Columbia College Chicago and New York University—students now so

numerous that their descriptions would halfway fill this book. I benefited ines￾timably from help, advice, and criticism from many esteemed colleagues, most

recently in Columbia’s Film/Video Department. Help with this and previous edi￾tions came from Doreen Bartoni, Robert Buchar, Judd Chesler, Gina Chorak, Dan

Dinello, Chap Freeman, Paul Hettel, T.W. Li, Emily Reible, Joe Steiff, and Diego

Trejo, Jr., Thanks also to Wenhwa Ts’ao, Chris Peppey, T.W. Li, Joan McGrath,

and Sandy Cuprisin for help in finding pictorial matter.

I learned much from all the impassioned teaching colleagues I encountered in

the many countries where I have taught, and from all the good work done by

those who organize and attend the conferences at CILECT (the International Film

Schools Association) and UFVA (University Film & Video Association of North

America). I think all of us feel we are slowly coming to grips with the Gordian

knot of issues involved in teaching young people how to make films.

For extensive and invaluable criticism of this edition I offer grateful thanks to

Mark Freeman (San Diego State University), Charles Merzbacher (Boston University),

Quinn Saunders (Quinnipiac University), Andrew Shea (University of Texas at

Austin), and Eric Swelstad (Los Angeles Valley College). Their detailed criticisms and

suggestions motivated me to go many an extra mile.

Enduring thanks go to my publishers at Focal Press; in particular Elinor

Actipis, Cara Anderson, and Robin Weston for their unfailing support, good

humor, and great work.

Among friends and family, thanks to: Tod Lending for teaching me more about

dramatic form; Milos Stehlik of Facets Multimedia for pictorial assistance; my son

Paul Rabiger of Cologne, Germany for our regular phone discussions and his advice

on music for film; to my daughters Joanna Rabiger of Austin, Texas and Penelope

Rabiger of Jerusalem for our far-ranging conversations on film, education, and so

much else. Over four decades their mother Sigrid Rabiger has also influenced my

beliefs through her writings and practice in art therapy and education.

Lastly, my deep appreciation to my wife and closest friend Nancy Mattei,

who puts up with the solitary and obsessive behavior by which books get written,

and whose humor, values, and advice keep me upright and keep me going. With

all this help, the errors are truly mine.

Michael Rabiger,

Chicago, 2007.

xii INTRODUCTION

PART 1

ARTISTIC IDENTITY AND DRAMA

Part 1 (Chapters 1 through 3) deals with the film director’s role, the current environment for anyone set￾ting out to become one, and what kind of preparatory work it takes to make a mark with audiences. This

takes uncovering your intrinsic artistic identity and deciding what kind of stories you are best equipped to

handle. Part 1 also explains the fundamentals of drama, and how to use them in filmmaking. It concludes

by describing the director’s responsibility for storytelling, and what distinguishes those who do it best.

Before you commit time and funds to chasing this alluring prospect, read Part 8: Career Track and

start planning out your career strategy. Strangely enough, many people look only a step or two ahead in

the belief that they are keeping their options open.

CHAPTER 1

THE WORLD OF THE FILM

DIRECTOR 3

Cinema Art and You 3

The Director 4

Who Directs 4

Responsibilities 4

Personal Traits 4

Collaboration 5

Leadership 5

Facing Tests 6

The Medium 6

Film or Video? 6

Short Films or Longer? 7

Developing Cinema Art 7

Why Hollywood Methods Won’t

Work 8

Filmmaking Tools and Film Exhibition 10

Learning to Direct 11

Environment 11

Film School 12

Developing a Career in Independent

Filmmaking 12

The Good News 12

The Bad News 14

With Low Budgets in Mind 14

The Auteur and Authorial Control 14

CHAPTER 2

IDENTIFYING YOUR

THEMES 16

Stories You Care Deeply About 16

Art, Identity, and Competitiveness 16

Identity, Belief, and Vision 18

Find Your Life Issues 19

Subjects to Avoid 22

Displace and Transform 22

Projects 23

Project 2-1: The Self-Inventory 23

Project 2-2: Alter Egos 24

Project 2-3: Using Dreams to Find Your

Preoccupation 24

The Artistic Process 25

How Writers Work 25

CHAPTER 3

DRAMATURGY ESSENTIALS 27

Duality and Conflict 27

Identifying a Character’s Conflict 28

Representation 28

Temperament Affects Vision 29

Character-Driven and Plot-Driven Drama 29

Drama and Propaganda Are Different 30

More Types of Drama 30

The Dramatic Unit and the Scene 31

Beats 31

Introducing the Goblin

Teasmade™ 31

A Character’s Agenda 33

Drama Makes Us Ask Questions 35

Interrogating a Scene 35

The Dramatic Arc 36

Levels of Action 37

The Three-Act Structure 37

Building a World Around the Concerned

Observer 38

Observer into Storyteller 39

2 ARTISTIC IDENTITY AND DRAMA